Passion fruit

Silchar, Oct. 24: Mizoram has made rapid strides in passion fruit farming with a view to explore the potential of its juice business.

Passion fruit’s origin is traced to South American countries like Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, but of late this orange-like fruit species has made its appearance in the Malabar region, Coorg in south India and the hills of the Northeast.

The cultivation of this exotic fruit in general takes place in the farms and orchards in both the autumn and winter months when the when the maximum temperature is around 20 degrees Celsius.

In Mizoram, passion fruit is now cultivated in 820 hectares of land and its average production is 7,900 tonnes annually.

Inspired by the general acceptance of the passion fruit both in fruit and juice forms, the Mizoram government in a new farming plan to augment the production of passion fruits had recently drawn up a scheme under the Centre’s project for the development of the rural areas called the New Land Use Policy.

According to the state’s horticulture minister, P.C. Lalthanliana, another scheme launched in the Tuikum area, about 90km from Aizawl, with a cluster of 10 villages under the Serchip district, will use another 612 hectares of land to cultivate passion fruit.

The Tuikum cluster of villages is located near the first processing plant for passion fruit at Chhingchhip in Serchip district, nearly 88km from Aizawl, having an optimum capacity to grind 10,000 tonnes for making squash in a year.

The fruit-processing plant in Chhingchhip is owned by the Mizoram Food and Allied Industries Co-operative Limited (MIFCO).

The passion fruit farming project in the Serchip district is estimated to cost the state exchequer Rs 79 crore, the horticulture minister said.